Gus Van Sant is a rarity. Not only has he directed major Hollywood films such as Good Will Hunting and Milk, he’s also brought his unique approach to independent-style films such as Gerry and Elephant.

But even someone successful at negotiating the jungle of U.S. filmmaking recognizes that commercial considerations influence every step of the creative process.

In a surprisingly candid interview, he told author David Spaner that he’s looking to go digital to make no-budget films outside of Hollywood. He’s come to realize that the dumbing down occurs everywhere in the industry in the U.S., even with smaller film companies because everyone has learned their craft with the big studios.

“There was an expected style in making a movie, like a template, and to deviate from it was highly suspect,” Van Sant said. “You always made these a-little-more-safe decisions because money was riding on it. I got tired of it.”

Van Sant is one of numerous directors and filmmakers Spaner interviews for his new book Shoot It! Hollywood Inc and the Rising of Independent Film, published by Arsenal Pulp Press ($22.95).

The origins of the book came directly out of Spaner’s experience as a former movie reviewer for the Province and seeing yet another lousy Hollywood film.

Shoot It! looks behind the curtain to make connections between culture and politics not only in the U.S. and Canada but in several countries around the world. What he’s found is that as Hollywood films have increasingly become corporate products designed to make money for a global audience, an international independent film movement focusing on telling stories has arisen to challenge it.

Shoot It! tells a fascinating story about the evolution of the Hollywood studio system from its early days in California, where it grew and soon supplanted the French film industry as the dominant international player. Thanks to an efficient star system and year-round production, American films were soon exported to waiting audiences around the world. The huge internal market in the U.S. meant films could make a profit even before they left North America.

Since then, whether it’s been Universal Pictures establishing a youth division in the 1960s or the studios recognizing that something was going on with ‘indies’ at the Sundance Film Festival in the 1990s, Hollywood has continually tried to harness the creativity of independent filmmakers.

Today, Hollywood has become an international big business like never before. Films are now packaged according to a formula: at least one big star if not more, lots of special effects and a huge advertising and marketing budget. Decisions about what stories are told are more likely to be made by the international sales departments than directors.

“While English is the studios’ language of choice, no language at all is even better when you have a global target audience,” Spaner writes.

“So the studios have invented a new kind of silent picture: computerized effects, car crashes, and other action in place of dialogue – aimed at youthful, male moviegoers everywhere.”

Even the term ‘independent’ has been co-opted. Independent originally meant directors working outside the studio system with a non-commercial sensibility. While those kinds of films are still being made, the studios have created their own specialty divisions to develop ‘independent’ films. But once that happened, the definition of independent changed.

In Canada, independent filmmakers haven’t been able to make much of a dent in the domination of Hollywood films in our movie theatres. Actor and filmmaker Don McKellar said it happens time and time again that a Canadian film — even when it’s making money — disappears to make way for a U.S. release. It happened to his Last Night – a film that Spaner calls a smart, funny look at a group of people spending their last night on earth. It was pulled in favour of Universal’s Meet Joe Black.

Sarah Polley, the feisty actor and director, believes one answer is quotas. To show their effectiveness, she cites the federal Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics code, known as MAPL. Becoming law in 1971, it requires radio stations to devote 25 per cent of air time to Canadian songs.

On that basis, an incredibly dynamic music industry was built. It can be done with film too by requiring exhibitors to show a certain percentage of Canadian films. It just takes the political will to do so.

Yet Polley said she’s been given the message that her public support for quotas isn’t supported by the film industry – to the point that she discovered her comments in favour of quotas at the Genies could negatively influence how many people would see her lovely film about aging and Alzheimer’s, Away With Her.

She’s supported by several others in the Canadian film industry – including Bruce Sweeney, McKellar and Chris Haddock, the Vancouver-based TV producer. He’s convinced that a quota would be bitterly fought by U.S. studios and their Canadian counterparts. “As they do with any good Canadian idea, including medicare. It would be vicious. It’s not going to be easy.”

kevingriffin@vancouversun.com

David Spaner will be reading from Shoot It! Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the Celluloid Social Club at Auditorium Jules-Verne, 5445 Baillie (at 37th between Oak and Cambie). The evening starts with screenings of the best Quebecois short films at 6:30 p.m. followed by best B.C. shorts at 8:30 p.m.

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Sell stories rather than tell stories, writes David Spaner in Shoot It

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